Before & After

The kitchen deconstruction has officially begun. We're taking bets to see if it is completed before Christmas when the whole fam damily arrives. Here are pictures before the demo after we had taken out all of furniture...

And here is after the cupboards and bookcases have been taken down...

And here is after the ceiling has been taken down...

The previous owners just loved the canned lighting. There was so much (25 in all) they had to just tear down the ceiling and start over.

Mmmm Chocolate

What's not to like about a chocolate fountain?

Glass Factory

One of the things the girls looked forward to this summer was a visit to the glass factory on the Oregon Coast (http://www.lcglasscenter.com/index.html). We had visited on past summer trips but we had never had time to participate. This year we put it on the schedule and made time for it. Nat made a glass paperweight and Syd made a glass float.

Here are the girls. They chose the glass colors they wanted and then rolled some melted glass in the colors and then returned it to the glass kiln to melt it all together.

Once the glass is melted together they take it our and cool it with a rounded wooded cup that is soaking in the water. The girls then got to pinch the glass to swirl all the colors together. They repeated the process of heating and cooling several times.




At this point Sydney blew through the tube to hollow her glass out into a float.

We left the float and paperweight at the studio overnight to cool. They cool it in a special oven that very gradually lowers the temperature so the glass doesn't shatter.


We spent the night in Yachats, OR looking for our own beach glass. We do this every year and have never found any, but we still have a lot of fun. The beaches here are so much different than California. They are so much more rugged. We always so a lot of ocean life which is very exciting for the girls.

Getting Started

Life just went into high gear now that school has started. Sydney is in 5th grade and loving it. She ran for Student Body President and won. Natalie is in 2nd grade and loving it, well everything but the homework. She is making sure NO ONE is loving that. Olivia would like to be in preschool, but we're still working on the potty training. This is just payback for the older girls being so easy to train.
Our days are filled with soccer, gymnastics, soccer, dance, soccer...did I say soccer? Soccer season is very busy, but fun. The girls love their teams this year. Natalie is finally on a team with some girls from her school, which is very important to her. Sydney is on a team that is mainly from other schools, but has former coaches that she loves.
I'm teaching p.e. with another parent in Natalie's class and continuing with Art Vistas in both 2nd and 5th. As soon as our church primary program is over in a couple weeks I'll be feeling great!
Steve is working hard as usual. He took some time off this last weekend to take Sydney to her friends house in SoCal while he and Natalie spent a couple days in LegoLand.
Busy but good.

(p.s. I'm not sure where that caption came from on the picture. I think the girls were making a get well card for someone)